Judge Dredd: 'Robot Wars', Part 5

NAME
Judge Dredd: 'Robot Wars', Part 5

FIRST PUBLISHED
2000 A.D. Prog 14

DATELINE
28 May 77

The prog also contained Invasion, Dan Dare, Flesh, Harlem Heroes and M.A.C.H.1 strips as well as a Flesh cover by Barry Mitchell.

PAGE COUNT
5

REPRINTS
The Complete Judge Dredd 1, Judge Dredd the Early Cases 1, The Complete Judge Dredd 1 and Judge Dredd The Complete Case Files 01.


SYNOPSIS
Call-Me-Kenneth threatens to turn Dredd into a living robot.

FIRSTS & LASTS
First time that a story has lasted to five parts. First work by Ian Gibson.

INFORMATION
Block-Buster Seven (a robot with a one ton bomb for a head), Robo-cuffs (robotic handcuffs that can sing or play word games) and at least two robot overseers (armed with whips dipped in corrosive acid that leave a painful weal on a robot's casing) are among Call-Me-Kenneth's army of robots.

Call-Me-Kenneth has introduced laws to govern his followers. The new law of robotics is to love, honour and obey Call-Me-Kenneth, but there are other laws as well. The penalty for harming robots is death and a robot's failure to lubricate its joints is a crime and the penalty is for the robot to rip out its own circuits and commit suicide.

JUDGE DREDD
Call-Me-Kenneth plans to remove Dredd's brain from his body, insert it into a Dredd-shaped android and connect ip his nerve endings to cause him pain every time he disobeys an order. Call-Me-Kenneth wants him to be in pain forever.

WALTER THE WOBOT
The servo robot is put to work mopping the factory floor of Call-Me-Kenneth's H.Q. and fell foul of one of the overseers's whips. He stole some of the highly corrosive acid from an overseer and used it to break Dredd out of his robo-cuffs.

OTHER CHARACTERS
CALL-ME-KENNETH
Dredd compares him to Adolf Hitler, he admits to being a big fan.

ARRESTS
None.

DEATHS
Call-Me-Kenneth insists that a robot commits suicide.

BEST LINES
Robo-Cuff: "I ain't a bad Robo-Cuff at heart, pal. If there's anything I can do to cheer you up.....sing to you..play a word game, maybe?"

WORST LINES
Dredd: "There was a human just like you back in the Twentieth century. His name was Adolf Hitler!"
Call-Me-Kenneth: "Yes! I'm a big fan of Hitler."

CATCHPHRASES
The robot describe humans/one/face as "Fleshy" once each.

Walter says bwing, contwol, cowosive, factowy, gwab, gwub, pwisoner, pwepared, pwoceed and wobots (in alphabetical order)

CONTINUITY & CROSSOVERS
None.

INFLUENCES & REFERENCES
Unknown.

MISTAKES
Dredd refers to Mega-City One as just Mega-City.

RETROSPECT
None.

NOTES
None.

CREDITS
There are no credits printed in the strip itself and so the following are taken from Barney.

Script: John Wagner
Artist: Ian Gibson
Letters: John Aldrich

This strip was Ian Gibson's first art for the galaxy's greatest comic and between his work for 2000 AD, the Judge Dredd Megazine and Daily Star he drew another 766 Judge Dredd strips. He also helped create The Ballad Of Halo Jones and I Was A Teenage Tax Consultant, drew for Ace Trucking, Judge Anderson, Banzai Battalion, Tharg's Future Shocks, Mind Wars, One-offs, Project Overkill, Ro-Jaws' Robo-Tales, Robo-Hunter, Strontium Dog, The Taxidermist, Tharg The Mighty, Walter The Wobot and The Mind Of Wolfie Smith, as well as 58 2000AD covers and two for the Megazine. His website is here.

REVIEW
This part doesn't advance the story very far, but it does show us where Walter's loyalties lie. Ian Gibson's darker style works very nicely for the interior of Call-Me-Kenneth's lair and the last panel of Dredd's reflection in Walter's screen is great.

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